Credit card late fees and interest rates compared (2026)

Updated 30 Oct 2026 · by SwipeWise editorial team · how we write

Every card issuer publishes what it charges when you miss a payment or carry a balance, but the numbers sit in different tables, use different bases and print the annual rate in different ways. This page puts the published figures side by side. Every figure is taken from the issuer’s own Most Important Terms and Conditions (MITC), key fact statement or schedule of charges, read on 30 October 2026. Charges change and some documents are older than others, so the dates below matter: use this to know what to look for, not as a substitute for your own card’s current schedule.

Late payment fee: what you pay if the minimum due is missed

Most issuers charge a fee in bands of your outstanding balance. A few charge a percentage of what you owe, with a floor and a ceiling. The table shows the fee each issuer’s document gives for six example balances, before the 18% GST that issuers add to the fee. A dash means no fee at that balance.

How the table was built, issuer by issuer:

• HDFC, Kotak and IndusInd publish the same bands: nil up to ₹100, ₹100 to ₹500, ₹500 up to ₹1,000, ₹600 to ₹5,000, ₹750 to ₹10,000, ₹900 to ₹25,000, ₹1,100 to ₹50,000 and ₹1,300 above. HDFC’s MITC dates its bands from 1 August 2024 and excludes Infinia Metal from them; IndusInd’s says its revised bands apply from 15 June 2026, replacing a table whose middle bands were ₹350, ₹550 and ₹800.
• SBI Card uses seven bands from nil to ₹1,300. Its band for ₹1,000 to ₹10,000 is a flat ₹750, which is why it charges more than HDFC at ₹2,000 (₹750 against ₹600).
• Axis Bank charges nothing up to ₹500, then ₹500, ₹750, ₹1,200 and ₹1,300 above ₹50,000. Burgundy Private and Primus cards are waived.
• Standard Chartered has the shortest table: ₹100, ₹500, ₹700 and ₹1,200 for anything above ₹10,000.
• Federal Bank prints a five-band table that tops out at ₹1,250. The worked example in the same document is older, so check the band edges against the current schedule.
• YES Bank charges nothing up to ₹500 of current outstanding (statement balance plus unbilled), and above that the lower of 10% of the statement balance and ₹1,350.
• IDFC FIRST charges 15% of the total amount due, less payments received before the due date, with a minimum of ₹100 and a maximum of ₹1,300. The MITC we read is a 2025 version, so confirm the percentage on the current schedule.
• AU Small Finance Bank also charges 15% of total amount due, with a minimum of ₹10 and a maximum of ₹1,300.
• American Express India charges 30% of the minimum payment due, with a floor of ₹500 and a ceiling of ₹1,000, plus tax. Because the fee follows the minimum payment, which is 5% of the principal (at least ₹100) plus any fees, interest and instalments, we computed the table from the 5% part alone: it sits at the ₹500 floor on balances up to about ₹33,000 and hits the ₹1,000 ceiling around ₹67,000, so a real fee on a balance carrying interest is higher than shown.
• RBL Bank charges 12.5% of the total outstanding amount, with a floor of ₹5 and a ceiling of ₹1,300, in both its key fact statement and its late payment section, so it is the cheapest in the table on small balances (₹50 on ₹400) and reaches the ₹1,300 ceiling at ₹10,400. A separate table for its Dial for Cash loan uses slabs and carries a 17 October 2025 date, which we do not apply to the card fee.
• HSBC India works differently and cannot be placed in the table: its fee is 100% of the minimum payment due, with a floor of ₹250 and a ceiling of ₹1,200, and it is charged only if the minimum is not received within three days after the due date. A minimum due of ₹500 therefore costs ₹500; a minimum of ₹100 costs ₹250.
• ICICI Bank publishes the same bands as HDFC in the MITC for its Amazon Pay card (last updated 10 July 2026, bands marked from 15 November 2024), charged on the total amount due less any payment received before the due date. ICICI’s general MITC PDF could not be read because its font encoding drops digits, so this row is the Amazon Pay card’s and other ICICI cards may differ.

Three patterns are worth knowing. The fee depends on the balance, not on how much of the minimum you missed, so on a ₹40,000 balance the fee is ₹1,100 to ₹1,350 at every issuer in the table, even if the minimum due was ₹2,000. Percentage-based issuers (IDFC, AU, YES) charge more than slab issuers on mid-sized balances: at ₹8,000 IDFC and AU charge ₹1,200 against ₹750 at HDFC, SBI and Axis. And several issuers add a further ₹100 if the minimum is missed in two consecutive cycles: SBI, Axis and Standard Chartered each say so in their documents.

Finance charges: the monthly rate and how the annual rate is printed

The interest on a revolving balance is quoted as a monthly rate, and each document also prints an annual figure. The monthly rates are close across issuers. The annual figures are not, because they are not calculated the same way.

Read the last column against the second. Eight of the issuers above print 45% for 3.75% a month, which is the monthly rate multiplied by twelve. Axis prints 55.55% for the same 3.75%, which is the monthly rate compounded twelve times: 1.0375 to the power of 12 is about 1.5555. Its 3.0% becomes 42.58% (1.03^12) and its 1.5% becomes 19.56% (1.015^12) by the same arithmetic. IDFC’s 47.88% and YES Bank’s 47.88% are simple twelve-times figures for 3.99%, and IndusInd’s 47.40% and 46.00% are 3.95% and 3.83% times twelve. So an Axis customer paying the same 3.75% monthly sees a bigger annual figure on the page than an SBI customer, without paying more. Compare the monthly rates, and check how each issuer computes the annual one. The documents’ own illustrations apply the monthly rate to the daily balance (monthly rate x 12 x days / 365), which is the simple method.

Three further points from the documents. Several issuers say the rate is dynamic: IDFC’s MITC says it can rise to 3.99% or fall to about 0.71% a month, and IndusInd says its rate can change with credit history, purchase pattern and payment behaviour, and lists a different monthly rate for each card family, from 3.95% down to 1.79%. SBI’s document says “up to 3.75%”. In the documents we read, interest runs from the transaction date once you do not pay the total due in full, so an unpaid month also removes the interest-free period on new spends. And GST at 18% applies on the interest and on the late payment fee, which HDFC’s worked example shows, so a ₹750 fee costs ₹885.

What the comparison means in practice

• Paying the full total due is the only way to avoid both. The minimum due only stops the late fee; interest still runs on the balance. The interest and minimum due guide has worked examples for HDFC and SBI Card.
• A missed due date on a small bill is cheap at slab issuers and expensive at percentage issuers. On an ₹8,000 balance the difference between HDFC at ₹750 and IDFC or AU at ₹1,200 is ₹450 before GST.
• Instant and low-limit card variants can carry much lower rates. Standard Chartered and Federal print 1.99% a month for some variants and AU for Zenith+, but those figures apply to specific cards, not the issuer’s range.
• Check the date on your own document. IDFC’s MITC we read dates from 2025, Federal’s example text is older than its table, and the HDFC and IndusInd bands changed in June 2026. If the table you rely on is older than your latest statement notice, trust the notice.

The cost of revolving is easy to underestimate against rewards: at 3.75% a month, a ₹10,000 balance carried for one month costs about ₹375 before GST, the same as 1.5% back on ₹25,000 of spend. That is why our card pages show fees and rewards separately from interest, and why the calculator assumes you pay in full. For the due date, grace days and statement cycle, see billing cycle and due date explained; for GST on these charges, see GST on credit card fees. This is general information, not financial advice.

Limits of this page

• Several documents are card-specific (Kotak’s is the League Platinum statement; IndusInd’s covers its premium cards; Standard Chartered’s is the Smart card MITC), so other cards from the same issuer may differ.
• We read each document once on 30 October 2026 and did not confirm it is the version your card falls under: many issuers publish separate schedules for specific cards, and a card’s own schedule overrides the general one.
• ICICI’s row comes from the Amazon Pay card’s MITC rather than the general ICICI document, which could not be read.
• The annual-rate arithmetic above is ours, from the issuers’ own monthly rates; the issuers do not publish an effective compound rate except where Axis prints it.

Sources

• HDFC Bank, Key Fact Statement cum MITC for credit cards, version 4.17 (October 2026): late payment bands (marked “w.e.f 1st August’24”; the 20 June 2026 date in the same document applies to a separate loan product), 3.75% a month, GST illustration. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• SBI Card, Most Important Terms and Conditions: late payment charges and finance charges up to 3.75% a month. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• Axis Bank, MITC for credit cards: late fee bands, finance charge table by card variant. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• Kotak Mahindra Bank, League Platinum key fact statement: late payment bands and 3.75% a month. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• IndusInd Bank, MITC for premium credit cards: late payment bands before and from 15 June 2026, monthly rates by card family (3.95%, 3.83% and lower). Read 30 Oct 2026.
• American Express India, Most Important Terms and Conditions for American Express credit cards (file dated 23 Mar 2026; card families including Platinum Travel and Membership Rewards): late payment charge formula and finance charges by card. Read 31 Oct 2026.
• RBL Bank, MITC cum key fact statement for credit cards: late payment fee formula and finance charge table by credit-score category. Read 31 Oct 2026.
• Standard Chartered, Smart credit card MITC: late payment charges from 1 May 2024, 3.75% and 1.99% a month. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• Federal Bank, MITC (7 September 2026): late payment table, revolving credit rates by average balance. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• YES Bank, credit card MITC V18 (October 2026): late payment charge formula and 3.99% a month. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• IDFC FIRST Bank, credit card MITC: 15% late payment formula and rate range. Read 30 Oct 2026 (file dated 2025).
• AU Small Finance Bank, MITC with schedule of charges: 15% late payment formula and rates by card. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• HSBC India, credit card MITC: late payment fee formula and 3.75% a month. Read 30 Oct 2026.
• ICICI Bank, MITC for the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank credit card (last updated 10 Jul 2026): late payment bands and 3.75% a month, read 31 Oct 2026; the Coral card page’s “₹100 to ₹1,300” range is consistent with it.

Keep reading

• Credit card interest and minimum due explained
• Credit card billing cycle and due date explained
• GST on credit card fees and charges: what is taxed
• How to read a credit card MITC before you apply
• Cash advance, over-limit and bounced-payment fees compared
• Minimum amount due: how fourteen card issuers calculate it